Comments on: The latest COBRA benchmarks

By: EB

EB — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:24:36 +0000

I have over 650 employees at this time, however used to be 850 back in October. I am also a HR dept. of one. I administer COBRA. Talk about a nightmare. I had to resend over 100 COBRA election notices for those we terminated from September through March. I do two kinds of COBRA elections-one for those terminated and one for those we switched from full-time to temporary status. COBRA premiums are above the national average depending on the plan. $343/491 to 1288/1844 for medical tiers and 14/44 to 35/110 for dental depending on tiers.We have a HDHP and a PPO for medical, two plans for dental, and one vision plan.

By: Bev

Bev — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:47:23 +0000

Our company implemented a temporary lay off of approximately 400 employees last November. Our COBRA rates for health insurance range from $289 (single coverage) to $877 (family coverage). We have three plan options for our active and COBRA participants. We chose not to add the extra % to administer our dental COBRA, which rages from $28 (single coverage) to $96 (family coverage). We had a significant amount of laid off employees elect COBRA benefits. We do the administering of our COBRA benefits. We also worked with our broker to find alternative health and dental coverage. I have not heard how this worked for the employees who chose this option. Dealing with the extra work isn’t as hard as seeing how hard it is for our people to survive this economy.

By: denabrandy

denabrandy — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:08:38 +0000

Where can I find the definitive information I need to begin with the new COBRA compliance laws? I have called federal agencies and looked on websites and nothing is updated as actual fact. Thank-you.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:32:14 +0000

We are a small home decorating company in MI and have approximately 83 employees. Compared to the national average, the costs are pretty consistent for families, but less for independent coverage. Currently, the cost for individual coverage under COBRA is $378.51 for our HMO plan and $464.62 for the PPO. Family coverage is $1,021.90 for the HMO and $1,287.99 for the PPO. About 30%-35% of seperating employees participate in COBRA. Due to the size of our company, COBRA administration is fairly minimal. My concern is that as a business already struggling with Finances and having to “front” the 65% of premiums, could result in us having to “do away” with our medical plans all together. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

By: lisa

lisa — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:40:53 +0000

individual cobra for our company would be $265.00 for medical and $30.00 for dental
family would be 745.00 medical and 85.00 dental
we have a small company so the paper work won’t be too much

p.s. we have great coverage even though we have a high median age. we switched to a large deductible then give our employees an hra card to cover it. we save alot of money this way

By: Karin

Karin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:15:44 +0000

Bob –

Don’t stress. The reason dental is broken out for us is that fact that we have differenct carriers. For cost purposes, it was cheaper to use United Concordia for dental and BCBS for health. Since I self administer COBRA, it is seperate paperwork. You should be just fine.

Have a great day.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:50:13 +0000

We are a self insured company and our COBRA rates are a lot lower for single coverage(about half) and family rates are about what the national average is. We currently bundle our health, dental and vision COBRA rates all together(if the departing employee had any or all coverages) is there anything in COBRA that says that you have to break out health seperate from the dental, vision rates. Karin’s comment got me thinking. Thanks for any input and GOD BLESS.

By: Pat S

Pat S — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:43:08 +0000

I guess all of this is preet much a moot point now what with the new COBRA changes. I think we will see a lot more COBRA takers

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:59:14 +0000

From what I hear, COBRA has little impact on the staff simply because it is very cost-prohibitive to choose COBRA. We’ve always had a TPA to handle it but have had few takers comparatively – even with layoffs.

By: R. B.

R. B. — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:09:36 +0000

We have a little over 100 employees and our premiums are $450 to $500 for individual insurance, depending on the plan elected and $1300 to $1500 for family coverage. Our payroll service handles our COBRA administration, but it’s not integrated with our payroll system (frustrating), so it’s still a burden for us and it’s pricey considering the work we still have to do. Looks like it’s just going to get worse in the future. I’m not against allowing a terminating employee being able to keep their coverage…being out of work is stressful enough and maintaining coverage can help lift a huge burden for some people. It’s just the administrative burden that I dislike. It’s very time-consuming.